April Showers Bring May Flowers
by MilesCloud
Summary: Another day, another shift at The Illusion for King. This time however, Mai and Yuri pay King a visit at her stomping grounds! But what could be the reason? (One-shot)


If there was anything that could be said about The Illusion, it's that it was indeed a tightly run ship with an emphasis on style. Come to think of it, The Illusion itself was seemingly decorated like a pirate's church. Jack-o lanterns laid resting on each end of the bar counter, there were windows with colored glass detailing things like bottles and steel cups of whiskey and gin, and orange bulb lights decorated the stony and wooden walls of the main bar area, the entryway, and even the performers stage. Who was the one in charge of this bar, who had such a clashing viewpoint of styles? That would be King.

Standing at a towering 5'9" and weighing approximately 130lbs, King was not the most feminine looking youth woman in Southtown, especially at the age of 24, but she certainly was one of the more interesting characters around the block. Dressed appropriately for her job, she wore a button-up dress shirt with a maroon suit, a matching colored bow-tie and pants, as well as a golden sash around her waist and a pair of white, silky gloves. If one was to judge her by appearance alone, she seemed as if she took nothing from nobody and only gave out pain. This was a half-truth, as King was quite the outward type in terms of her physical prowess (being a regular entrant in the King of Fighters tournament), and yet she wasn't as cold and keeping-to-oneself as she was thought out to be by patrons of her bar. After all, she had to put up with regular drunkards and cheapskates who barhopped to order Mojitos.

The distant and yet quiet sounds of Hotel California by the Eagles could be heard from the jukebox near the bar's counter, filled to the brim with old rock, jazz, and folk songs that King had personally culled together from her trips around the world. She hadn't ever traveled alone when she did, as she always had those she considered friends by her side. Whether it was Kasumi and her anti-Kyoukugen stance (King had issues with this), Blue Mary's never-give-in attitude (Mary had been the officer King had informed about Mr. Big back when it all went down), or even her old friends from her outing in previous King of Fighters tournaments, those being-

"Yuri, Mai! I'm glad you two could make it." King spoke out to the doorway as she cleaned an empty glass, the doors opening to reveal her two best friends from their adventures together, Mai Shiranui and Yuri Sakazaki. She'd had history with Yuri prior to the King of Fighters tournament, having been the one to help her come closer to freedom from Mr. Big and his goons, and thus ended up as a good friend of her older brother Ryo and Yuri's boyfriend Robert. Meanwhile, she'd loosely heard about Mai during her stay in Witness Protection Program for a year (due to having made enemies with Mr. Big and his goons), because of her performance in prior King of Fighters tournaments. It had been a pleasure to compete with them all this time, and she was happy to call the two younger women friends of hers.

Mai was dressed moderately (for once), a brown leather jacket to match her brown hair tied up in a neat ponytail, a Black Sabbath t-shirt and slightly grungy looking jeans with simple sneakers. Yuri meanwhile wore her usual attire: a silvery karate gi with black-ish spandex pants, red Converse sneakers, fingerless karate gloves, and a red headband and running shoes for exercising. They appeared to be talking about something before they arrived, and Yuri was the first to hear King's words focused on them.

"Kingy! Hi!" Yuri jumped up and waved at her friend before jogging on over, while Mai took her time walking over, mostly to get a better look at the interior décor of The Illusion. "I always forget about those windows, and the little orange lights everywhere!" Mai remarked positively, before her and Yuri took seats at the bar, yet neither of them were here for drinks. King reached over from behind the bar (this was slightly improper, but she didn't entirely care) and gave her two friends a hug, which they heartily returned. A reunion of a team, a collective, and a group of friends. None of them could ever ask for more.

"I'm so glad you two could afford to come over on such short notice, especially today. It's a little quiet, what with it being a few days before Easter Sunday." King spoke as she broke the hug to go back to cleaning the formerly full cup from earlier. Mai laid her cheek on her fist as her elbow was propped up on the bar counter and she responded with a chuckle, while Yuri pulled out her phone from her pocket to answer a notification really quickly, before pocketing it to focus her undivided attention on King. "Well, time waits for nobody, and neither of us are nobody, aren't we?" Mai remarked to the Kyoukugen practitioner beside her, Yuri responded by giggling and nodding. "Yeah, we're your friends Kingy, of course we'd show up!" King simply smiled and put the empty glass down, before walking to the back room where Sally and Elizabeth (her most valued employees) were busy talking about something Elizabeth was showing Sally on her phone. A box full of recent shipments was sat by the back door, along with a white tablecloth covering a box beside the other.

Elizabeth put her phone away and Sally cleared her throat as they both looked at King, curious as to what she was doing in the office. "I'm going to take my thirty minutes, Mai and Yuri are here." "Ah, of course Ms. King! We'll watch the bar for you." Sally replied quickly, while Elizabeth nodded and stood up to stretch and head to the bar, Sally following behind her twin sister. King rolled her eyes playfully at how dedicated the two were to their jobs, before she removed her suit and carried it behind her as she walked out of the office to sit between Yuri and Mai at the bar counter. "Soooo, how's the bar coming along, King? Anything interesting happen today? Didja kick someone yet?" Yuri bombed her friend and semi-mentor with questions about her bar duties, while Mai snickered from the other side of King. Once Yuri got started, there was no slowing her down.

"Goodness, today's been so slow that I can remember every detail down to the millisecond. I'm not even sure if I remember what time it is, I haven't looked at the clock in some time." King replied semi-jokingly, with sprinkles of truth mixed in for good pleasure. It had been a drag today for reasons also unrelated to the bar, and it wasn't even Happy Hour yet. She could not wait to get off work and relax at home. "The great King, bored of her job? I'm surprised." Mai retorted with snark; a sack full of it in fact. King was recently becoming a little tired of working longer shifts, as she wanted to spend time with her brother Jan and get out more, so any chance to take even the tiniest break was happily accepted by King. She had no intention of ever shutting The Illusion down, but she couldn't work there 24/7.

"Hey, Kingy works hard for the money!" Yuri came to King's metaphorical defense, knowing full well that King could defend herself against most threats, including verbal. King replied by scoffing and rolling her neck, her joints popping as she let out a relieved sigh. "Aaaaaanyways, Kingy! We gotcha something." Mai looked over at Yuri, her eyebrows raised as Yuri realized it was time. The Kyoukugen girl gave Sally and Elizabeth a look, before the two nodded in response. King turned around to see Sally and Elizabeth seemingly abandoning post as the door was closing behind them. She became concerned, knowing they wouldn't ever leave from behind the bar unless it was something serious. "Hold on, Mai. Sally? Eliza? Is something the matter?" The Muay Thai practitioner got up from the stool and headed for the back, her worry growing for her valued employees as she opened the door.

Once the door was opened, she would see the tablecloth-covered box from before now sitting on her desk, sans the tablecloth, where it was lying on a chair behind a desk. The desk was littered with folders and paperwork detailing payments, and the box, a beautiful dark green and ornate maroon red, was laying on the desk, revealing a logo on the side of it: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. King paused what she was going to say, frozen as the box's contents were becoming apparent to her. "Mon dieu...ça ne peut pas être?" ("My god ... it can't be?") King reacted in her native tongue, beginning to back up before bumping into Mai and Yuri, who were now standing behind her. The bartender flinched and turned around to see her dearest friends, holding up a wine glass. "Go on, Kingy! Open the box!" Yuri excitedly spoke, practically bouncing up and down on the back of her feet as King politely accepted the wine glass. She was shaking ever-so-slightly, her movements slow as she walked back over to the box.

Sally and Elizabeth stepped back to let their boss and friend open the lid, revealing three bottles of wine, encased in beautiful black bottles, topped off with a red lid and simple white packaging on the sides of it. "It's Grand Cru!" Sally spoke up, joy in her voice as Elizabeth nodded. "You told us about the Domaine brand a few weeks ago, and we decided this would be a perfect birthday gift." King stood there in pure shock, before gently picking up one of the bottles and turning it around a few times. "And that's not all, you got a letter as well." Elizabeth reached into her coat pocket to reveal a letter, ordained with the letters 'DRC'. King put the bottle back down and gently accepted the letter, opening it to reveal the following:

'Chère King. Merci pour tout votre travail acharné et belle représentation de la grande terre de France. Nous vous dédions spécifiquement ce coffret. Je vous remercie.' ('Dear King. Thank you for all your hard work and beautiful representation of the great land of France. We specifically dedicate this box to you. Thank you.')

King was positively gobsmacked, bewildered she had gotten a private letter from those at Domaine, all for fighting in The King of Fighters. Never had she once considered she was important to those back in her homeland, but this was now reinforced into her heart. The bartender set the letter down as Yuri and Mai moved over to Sally and Elizabeth's side, taking a deep breath, before looking back up the group with tears in her eyes. "M-merci beaucoup. Cela s-signifie tellement p-pour moi...!" ("Thank you so much. It means so much to me ...!" King moved forward to hug her friends, joyfully laughing as the people she loved hugged her back. "Happy birthday, King!" They all spoke at the same time, as the hug was broken to give King some breathing room.

The Muay Thai champion took a deep breath, before clearing her throat and smiling at her group of friends. "I-I was a little worried you'd all forgotten what today was. Even I'd forgotten it was the 8th." King chuckled under her breath, before she went to go grab her suit jacket. "And yet…that's not the only surprise for today." Sally and Elizabeth looked at each other curiously, Mai crossed her arms, and Yuri tilted her head to the side. "Something better than really expensive wine? I thought you loved those!" Mai remarked removing one of her fans from her jacket pocket to wave at herself. She felt hot, there was barely any air-conditioning in the office. "Oh, I do, of course." King reached into her inner suit pocket, revealing a letter with a specific symbol on it. Stamped in red ink was a large R in the middle. "But I prefer drinking my wine while with my friends across the world." The Muay Thai woman smiled confidently at her two teammates, before producing two more, tossing them to Mai and Yuri respectively. Mai caught hers with surprise, and Yuri failed to catch hers, pick it up from off the ground and dusting it off. "Ryo and Robert sent me your letters. They wanted me specifically to give them to you." Mai excitedly jumped up in place, holding her letter close. "The King of Fighters tournament! A-and we're invited!" Yuri meanwhile fist pumped in joy, shoving her letter into Sally and Elizabeth's face. "Lookit! Me, Kingy and Mai are going to fight! And we're gonna kick major butt, Kyoukugen style!" The three women celebrated with a group hug. The Women Fighters team was back again, and this time they were dead set on winning the whole shebang.


End file.
